CLEAR LAKE, QUAGGA UPDATE, PLEASE READ, VERY LONG

[Bob Myskey]

I recently attended a meeting with some of the powers to be about how to protect Clear Lake from the Quagga. Director of water resources, Dept of Fish n game biologist, Director of Chamber of Commerce, sheriff's dept, and three people from an advisory board were all in attendance. I showed up to simply know what was being discussed and to voice an opinion as a Fisherman, A guide who makes his living on the lake, and a Tournament angler. This was an open meeting, anyone could have attended, I took the time to be there to at least voice my concerns.
I stayed for two hours then left, the results of this meeting were then presented to the board of supervisors who in turn agreed to a plan of action that you saw in a previous thread. Following is an e mail from the CEO of the chamber that I just received:
Bob, Please contact all the tournament organizers and inform them that the County of Lake is creating protocol for tournaments concerning protecting Clear Lake from invasive species infestation. We will be sending all of them letters by Monday Or Tuesday.
We are dedicated to keeping Clear Lake open for all recreation. There are no plans to shut down Clear Lake. We will need 100% cooperation from them to help us enforce that all boats will arrive clean and dry antyime they fish the lake, pre-fishing included. We are instituting a sticker program for any water vessel which desires to launch in Clear Lake, including the over 6000 registered Lake County vessels, no exceptions.
There is an outreach program being developed immediately hopefully with the assistance of the tournaments, bass, carp, catfish, etc. In addition all of our resorts/accommodations will be included in our outreach so that anyone calling for a reservation will be informed about the necessity to have clean and dry boats, PWC's etc. when they arrive and that the inspections/sticker program is in place to protect the lake.
There is much being developed to protect the lake and more information will be coming soon. The supervisors approved the purchase today of 4 decontamination stations which should be in place in about 5 weeks. There is for some of us, a fairly confident feeling that the inspection process will reveal that 99% + vessels will not require decontamination.
SO THERE IT IS: Like it or not I will say that at least some action is being taken by a County with little or no money. We all stand to lose a lot here, let's don't try to re invent the wheel or discuss who has ""Their Head Up their ***"". I did this post so that all of you can help communicate the need to be a concerned person, get the message out to the tournament org's, arrive here with a ""Clean""boat and do your part and Not Just complain about what it is going to cost you. The financial impact of the Quagga infecting Clear Lake will be ""HUGE"", Not to mention the possibility of destroying a World Class Fishery. So don't whine, try to help, I can only imagine how you would whine if ""They Closed The Lake. By the way, they have been testing for the Quagga since last year, yes it may already be here, ""BUT"" IF ITS NOT, let's keep it that way. I am done, have to go guide again, it's a full moon and the big ones are on the move. Get the Word Out,

Bob Myskey, www.fishclearlake.com, www.dobynsrods.com

[Calistar]

First off, Thanks Bob for going to the meeting and being a voice for
tournament fishing. This is exactly what we need. More people getting involved and people going straight to the source for information.

Secondly, I would like to encourage every Tournament Circuit, Bass Club, and Bass Fisherman to get involved.

I'd love to hear what steps ABA, 100%, Future Pro, AC are willing to take to get the word out. I know many of you TD's or Reps hang out here on this forum.

Maybe for the Clubs, they can start by printing out Myskey's post and reading it and discussing at their next meeting. The more people that get involved, the better chance we have to protect the best bass fishery in the country.

Greg.

[mac (Doyle McEwen)]

It seems the powers that be around Clearlake do in fact know which side of the bread their butter is on..Just about anything you do to protect our water resources is going to cost us something..Some might see all of this current reaction as going overboard, and in some cases that may be true..If we as users try and do our part, the impact will be less than if we don't..

mac

[Greg_Cornish]

http://lakeconews.com/content/view/3610/742/

[Steve Reed]

Hopefully they will give stickers that last a month at least.... I would hate to have to be checked every day

This just takes some of the fun out of clear lake, I love it so much because it was like an escape, where you drive into town in the early morning to put the boat in; now its just going to be different....its sad


just dont pull a casitas

[Bill kizer]

Bob Myskry, I sent you a PM. Please respond

[NaCl]

Bob,

These mussels originated in a river in the Ukraine and were found in the USA in 1989, shortly after the collapse of the USSR. Could this be communist retaliation? LOL!

On the serious side, I commend the intentions that underly the actions taken by the officials at Clear Lake to prevent the spread of Quagga mussel. But, I wonder if this approach is really a waste of public money. The Quagga mussels ARE here in the west. They ARE going to be transported from one fishery to another by various mechanisms including some that the officials have no control over...migratory birds, for example. We need to learn how to live with them.

Lake Erie was infested with Quagga back in 1989. How are they coping with these mussels? What about the places in Eastern Europe that have had these mussels for a long time...how do they manage these shellfish?

IMHO, money spent on "prevention" is likely money that could have been better spent on research on how to manage this pest. Besides, you said they are likely already present in Clear Lake so "prevention" may be a waste of effort...although well intended. It seems to me that there ought to be a way (or combination of ways) to manage these mussels. Mechanical harvesting, natural predators, Quagga-specific toxins or viruses...there must be a way to live with the Quagga infestation without resorting to Draconian measures like banning boats from launching on a body of water.

.....NaCl

[Rough Thumb]

So does this mean that someone will be staffed 24/7/365 at each of the 4 stations?
Who actually will do the decontamination and who hands out the stickers?